Embrace AI Content as a Tool Not an SEO Solution

What is AI Content?

Automatically generated content is content that is generated using natural language processing and natural language generation. There are now many popular tools that provide AI Content.

AI Content’s Role in SEO

In the past, AI Content has been used to spin up content quickly or has even been used to manipulate search engine results and is sometimes considered to be a “black-hat” SEO technique. (A black-hat SEO technique is a tactic that violates search engine guidelines.)

Today, we believe technology has advanced to such a degree that marketers must pay attention to the capabilities and understand how and when we can leverage them.

One of the most exciting new technologies to emerge within AI Content is OpenAI’s ChatGPT. 

“We’ve trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”

The potential for integrating ChatGPT into a digital marketer’s tech stack is very exciting. Clever marketers are using ChatGPT in all kinds of ways, including creating RegEx formulas, summarizing site changes from the Wayback Machine, and more. Check out Aleyda Solis’ post here for 20 Ways to Leverage ChatGPT in Your SEO Activities. In this POV, we’ll focus on how we believe ChatGPT can be leveraged for content creation.

AI Content and Google: Will I be punished for leveraging AI Content? Google, specifically, John Mueller, says that AI-generated content would fall under the “automatically generated content” umbrella (i.e. spam) and would “still be against webmaster guidelines”. This specifically refers to content created by AI technologies without being edited by humans.

Can I use AI-Generated Content as-is?

Some AI-generated content seems decent enough to use without review, however, Seer recommends against it. Simply feeding AI tools a topic and publishing the output without human review could produce shallow content that could leave websites susceptible to penalties. Currently, we believe AI tools work best as supplemental tools to help convey and bolster content ideation, not completely replace human thought and experience. AI tools can be leveraged to generate content more efficiently and effectively if used correctly, but we are far from a future where we can remove humans from content creation.

Can Google Detect the use of AI-Generated Content?

A large portion of Google’s model is the caching of information. It gets better and better every day and in regard to content search engines, specifically, Google is able to detect quality. If you’re considering AI-generated content, it’s important to remember that quality and writing for your users are key.

• Content should be natural and make sense, not just including search keywords
• Human review, including supplementing with unique insights, is critical before publishing any kind of content
• Try not to generate large amounts of content in one sitting

Also note, Google recently updated their quality rater guidelines to reflect an extra “E” within “E-A-T.” The moniker is now “E-E-A-T” which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. What could Google be hinting at by making this statement? We believe that content coming from a place of experience and unique value is more important than ever, which cannot be provided by using AI Content as a single-step process.

How should we use AI-Generated Content today?

Seer is testing a few ways we can leverage these systems to drive better performance for our clients. We are nascent in our testing, but here are a few concepts to consider:

In Conclusion

We believe in 2023, AI will become integrated into our tech stack in more ways than one. Savvy marketers will figure out how to leverage this new tool to their advantage, and you should too. Think beyond the potential for quick-win, high-risk content creation and instead try to imagine how we can use this incredible tool to increase efficiency in all kinds of different SEO processes. As economic concerns loom, the need to do more with less will only continue. Leveraging tools to work smarter, not harder, will continue to provide your team with an advantage.

Reach out to us to see how Seer can support your SEO program.

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